Willy Loman Quotes

WILLY: Gee, on the way home tonight I’d like to buy some seeds.
LINDA (laughing): That’d be wonderful. But not enough sun gets back there. Nothing’ll grow any more.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy discusses with Linda the idea of planting some seeds in the backyard. His wife laughingly suggests that her husband’s plans are unlikely to succeed because the yard is so dark as it is surrounded by city apartment blocks. The image of seeds relates to Willy’s American Dream of material prosperity and also his love of nature vs city life.

WILLY: Before it’s all over we’re gonna get a little place out in the country, and I’ll raise some vegetables, a couple of chickens…
LINDA: You’ll do it yet, dear.
WILLY: You wait, kid, before it’s all over we’re gonna get a little place out in the country, and I’ll raise some vegetables, a couple of chickens…And they’ll get married, and come for a weekend. I’d build a little guest house…I could build two guest houses, so they’d both come.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy Loman appears happiest when he is in the great outdoors, in close communion with nature, and building things with his hands. Is it any wonder he is discontented when he is part of the rat race living in New York City and working as a salesman.

Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken! I’m always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it’s on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they’re used up.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy’s distorted American Dream of having household goods that last and don’t break down is illustrated here, as he complains about his clapped out fridge and car. These items represent the shallowness of Willy’s dream, which is entirely materialistic based. Refrigerator is personified here, having the ability to consume belts like some crazy person.

LINDA: All told, about two hundred dollars would carry us, dear. But that includes the last payment on the mortgage. After this payment, Willy, the house belongs to us.
WILLY: It’s twenty-five years!
LINDA: Biff was nine years old when we bought it.
WILLY: Well, that’s a great thing. To weather a twenty-five year mortgage is…
LINDA: It’s an accomplishment.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. The Lomans’ desire to own their own house represents the American Dream for them, but it can also become a burden. An upbeat Linda chats to her husband about their finances and how they have only one more payment left on their house mortgage. She puts on a cheerful tone as she helps Willy dress for his upcoming interview with his boss Howard. Sadly Willy won’t live to see the mortgage paid off. His meeting with Howard doesn’t go well, and he feels that he has to commit suicide so that the life insurance money will give his family financial security and enable them pay their bills, including the last mortgage payment.

Gee whiz! That’s really something. I’m gonna knock Howard for a loop, kid. I’ll get an advance, and I’ll come home with a New York job. Goddammit, now I’m gonna do it!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy, speaking to Linda, is full of confidence about his upcoming meeting with his boss Howard. He naively believes that Howard will accept his request to work close to home in New York City. This is all part of Willy’s wild mood swings from depression to euphoria and his continuous tendency to deceive himself.

WILLY: Oh. Can we talk a minute?
HOWARD: Records things. Just got delivery yesterday. Been driving me crazy, the most terrific machine I ever saw in my life. I was up all night with it.
WILLY: What do you do with it?
HOWARD: I bought it for dictation, but you can do anything with it. Listen to this. I had it home last night. Listen to what I picked up. The first one is my daughter. Get this. Listen to that kid whistle.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. When Willy goes to his boss Howard’s office to to discuss a job move to New York, the meeting takes a disastrous turn. Howard completely ignores Willy’s request to talk, he is so distracted by his latest technological toy, a wire recorder. He continues to play with his new toy, oblivious to Willy’s needs and wants.

WILLY: I don’t need much any more. If I could take home – well, sixty-five dollars a week, I could swing it…Howard, all I need to set my table is fifty dollars a week…If I had forty dollars a week – that’s all I’d need. Forty dollars, Howard.
HOWARD: Kid, I can’t take blood from a stone, I…

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy cuts a pathetic figure as he begs Howard to give him a non-traveling job on a modest salary. At first he says that he could get by on 65 dollars a week, but as Howard remains impassive to Willy’s pleas, Willy drops his price to 50 and finally 40 dollars. Howard uses a "blood from a stone" metaphor to say that he has no job available. Thoughout the exchange the younger Howard repeatedly calls Willy "kid" and adopts a condescending tone to him.

WILLY: Your father came to me the day you were born and asked me what I thought of the name of Howard, may he rest in peace.
HOWARD: I appreciate that, Willy, but there just is no spot here for you.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Despite the fact that Willy helped Howard’s father name him when he was born, Howard tells him that he has no job for him. This must have seemed like a betrayal to Willy, having met with Howard to plead for a non-traveling position in New York on a lower salary. Willy entered the meeting with Howard optimistic, mistakingly believing that his connection to Howard’s father and his loyalty would win the day for him. But the son of the original boss remains unsentimental and unsympathetic.

Oh, yeah, my father lived many years in Alaska. He was an adventurous man. We’ve got quite a little streak of self-reliance in our family.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. As Willy tries to convince Howard to give him a non-traveling job in New York, he rewrites his family history. Making them out to be imbued with an independent pioneering sprit, he describes his father as a great adventurer. In truth his father upped and abandoned his family and left them fend for themselves. But in order to fit his sales pitch to Howard, Willy has rewritten his father’s desertion as some kind of heroic action. This speaks to the themes of self-deception and abandonment.

And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ‘Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy is speaking to Howard about his idol Dave Singleman, a successful salesman across New England who was Willy’s inspiration. But Willy’s uncritical admiration for Singleman blinds him to reality and shows the depth of his self-deception. For at over 80 years of age, Singleman was still working, very likely because he was under financial pressure to do so. Willy, who lives in his own world of illusion, also sees his hero as happy and loved by people in the business. But it is also likely that he was a lonely man without family, which is suggested by his name "Singleman." Willy’s version of the American dream, as represented by Singleman, is a corrupt one.

When he died – and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, going into Boston – when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral. Things were sad on a lotta trains for months after that.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy pays homage to mythical salesman Dave Singleman, who he aspires to be like in life and in death. Dave is the epitomy of everything Willy wants to be, liked by everyone, successful, with hundreds of salesman and buyers attending his funeral. Singleman represents Willy’s American dream. Here we witness Willy’s search for identity, as he fantasizes about what will happen when he dies. Ironically only five mourners will turn up at his funeral, for Willy is no Dave Singleman but a mediocre salesman who has only made big sales in his imagination. Willy’s death is foreshadowed here. In his blind admiration for Singleman, we see another example of Willy deceiving himself. There are no family members mentioned being at Singleman’s funeral because he appears to have had none. The name "Singleman" is ironic in that it suggests he was probably a lonely man, not the perfect and fulfilled person Willy imagines him to be.

In those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear – or personality. You see what I mean? They don’t know me any more.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy is pleading for his job to his younger boss Howard, who is barely interested and doesn’t even look at Willy as he speaks. Willy cuts a very lonely figure, talking about how a sales environment based on friendship has changed and the clients he sells to no longer know him. Despite recalling the good old days under Howard’s father, when personality and respect and comradeship were the keys to success, Willy is still fired by Howard.

You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy is talking to his boss Howard about getting a non-traveling postion with the company, after spending 34 years working for it. When Howard refuses, Willy uses a fruit metaphor to describe how Howard has treated him like an orange. His boss has consumed the best years of his life and when he is of no further use he throws him away like a peel. This is symbolic of an unsentimental capitalist system that treats employees as expendable, discarding them when they are no longer needed. Themes of betrayal and abandonment, found throughout the play, are present here.

HOWARD: Where are your sons? Why don’t your sons give you a hand?
WILLY: They’re working on a very big deal.
HOWARD: This is no time for false pride, Willy. You go to your sons and tell them that you’re tired. You’ve got two great boys, haven’t you?
WILLY: Oh, no question, no question, but in the mean time…

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. In this sad scene Howard tells Willy that he no longer has a job and suggests that he take it easy. His statement that he forget false pride and let his "two great boys" take care of him is ironic. For Willy does not have two great sons he can rely on. In raising them, he has taught them his own defective formula for success, which is a formula for failure in life.

You’ve got a new continent at your doorstep, William. Get out of these cities, they’re full of talk and time payments and courts of law. Screw on your fists and you can fight for a fortune up there.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. In this imagined scene by Willy, his brother Ben urges him to abandon the city for the opportunities and prosperity of the West. Ben tells him that he has bought some timberland in Alaska and he needs a man to look after things for him. Willy is tempted by his offer: "God, timberland! Me and my boys in those grand outdoors?"

WILLY: No, wait! Linda, he’s got a proposition for me in Alaska.
LINDA: But you’ve got – (To Ben) He’s got a beautiful job here.
WILLY: But in Alaska, kid, I could – .
LINDA: You’re doing well enough, Willy!
BEN (to linda): Enough for what, my dear?
LINDA (frightened of Ben and angry at him): Don’t say those things to him! Enough to be happy right here, right now.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. When Ben proposes that Willy go to Alaska to look after some timberland for him there, Linda objects. She argues that her husband is already doing well in his current job as a salesman. Linda is in denial about Willy’s failings and his struggles to keep his job, which goes to the theme of self-deception. The theme of nature vs city is also found in this passage.

WILLY: Sure, sure. I am building something with this firm, Ben, and if a man is building something he must be on the right track, musn’t he?
BEN: What are you building? Lay your hand on it. Where is it?
WILLY (hesitantly): That’s true, Linda, there’s nothing.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy’s imagined scene with his brother Ben shows his insecurity about his success as a salesman. When Ben suggests that Willy has no tangible results of any success he has built with his firm, Willy readily agrees. Willy knows that he has never achieved anything like the success of his brother or his boss Howard.

Without a penny to his name, three great universities are begging for him, and from there the sky’s the limit, because it’s not what you do. It’s who you know and the smile on your face! It’s contacts, Ben, contacts! The whole wealth of Alaska passes over the lunch table at the Commodore Hotel, and that’s the wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked! (He turns to Biff) And that’s why when you get out on that field today it’s important. Because thousands of people will be rooting for you and loving you. (To Ben, who has again begun to leave) And Ben! When he walks into a business office his name will sound out like a bell and all the doors will open to him! I’ve seen it, Ben. I’ve seen it a thousand times! You can’t feel it with your hand like timber, but it’s there.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. A hallucinating Willy imagines that he is talking to dead brother Ben in this rant about rising star Biff. He deceives himself into believing that a glorious future awaits young Biff, the high school sports hero, because he looks good and is well liked. Willy’s creed is that these, and not hard work, are what bring prosperity and material success. He is unable to distinguish between dreams and reality. In this speech Willy uses diamonds as a metaphor for wealth and success. There are also two examples of similes. Biff’s name being spoken is compared to a bell that will open doors for him in the future. Willy talks of success as something real, even though you cannot grasp it in your hand "like timber." The sad irony is that Biff will not have a successful and prosperous career, but will fail math and won’t graduate from high school.

WILLY (feeling Biffs muscles): You’re comin’ home this afternoon captain of the All-Scholastic Championship Team of the City of New York.
BIFF: I got it, Pop. And remember, pal, when I take off my helmet, that touchdown is for you.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy has high hopes for Biff, as he shows pride in his son’s muscular good looks and popularity and status as captain of the high school team. This is one of the proudest and happinest moments Willy shares with Biff in the play. Biff, he believes, is destined for great things and a prosperous future. And Biff feels very close to the father he still looks up to. Sadly that idyllic father-son relationship does not last.

WILLY: This is the greatest day of his life.
CHARLEY: Willy, when are you going to grow up?
WILLY: Yeah, heh? When this game is over, Charley, you’ll be laughing out of the other side of your face. They’ll be calling him another Red Grange. Twenty-five thousand a year.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy shows an exaggerated feeling of pride in son Biff, the star of his high school football team. His self-deception and detachment from reality see him compare Biff to Red Grange, a famous American football player. Neighbor Charley tries to bring him back to earth by asking when is he going to grow up. Willy betrays his obsession with financial success by reminding Charley that Biff is on the road to earning big money.

WILLY (small and alone): What – what’s the secret?
BERNARD: What secret?
WILLY: How – how did you? Why didn’t he ever catch on?
BERNARD: I wouldn’t know that, Willy.
WILLY (confidentially, desperately): You were his friend, his boyhood friend. There’s something I don’t understand about it. His life ended after that Ebbets Field game. From the age of seventeen nothing good ever happened to him.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy had high aspirations for his high school football star son Biff and expected him to go on and be a great success in life. But the opposite happened. Bernard was the one who became a successful lawyer and did far better than Willy expected. This is an example of situational irony. Willy asks Bernard to explain the secret of success to him and why Biff was a failure.

Why? Why! Bernard, that question has been trailing me like a ghost for the last fifteen years. He flunked the subject, and laid down and died like a hammer hit him!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy responds to Bernard’s question as to why Biff failed math in high school and dropped out of summer school. Personification is used by Miller to describe how the question trailed Willy like a ghost, emphasizing his anguish and puzzlement over his son’s behavior. In a simile Willy compares Biff’s depression and giving up on everything to a hammer hitting him.

BERNARD: I’ve often thought of how strange it was that I knew he’d given up his life. What happened in Boston, Willy? (Willy looks at him as at an intruder.)
BERNARD: I just bring it up because you asked me.
WILLY (angrily): Nothing. What do you mean, "What happened?" What’s that got to do with anything?…What are you trying to do, blame it on me? If a boy lays down is that my fault?

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. An astute Bernard knows that his friend Biff gave up on his life after a visit to his father in Boston. He asks Willy out straight what happened in Boston, suspecting something there prompted Biff to abandon his plan to go to summer school and pass math. A defensive Willy attempts to evade responsibility. He rebukes Bernard for trying to blame Biff’s failures on him and doesn’t reveal the truth to Bernard. We later learn that Biff decided to "lay down" and give up on his goals after he catches his father with another woman in a hotel room.
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